Can a Calculator be Vintage?

[rsparks64]

I got my first TI at the end of 72 after my first semester in college. Using a slide rule was a pain in the *** during tests because there wasn’t always enough time to double check everything and I occasionally lost track of the decimal points. My parents balked at the price but reneged and I started the second semester with that TI. I threw my slide rule away.

 

[AreBeeBee]

My father was a civil engineer. He purchased this around 1975. It was very expensive, but he said it was revolutionary for his work. I still use it occasionally. Brings back great memories of my dad!

Have you entered and run the Moon landing program that the book gives the key strokes for?

 

[Mr.zippy]

Have you entered and run the Moon landing program that the book gives the key strokes for?

No! I will have to check that out. It has all the manuals, I'll do some research. Thanks!

 

[Outlawmws]

I just found this thread, -I think they can be vintage!

A couple I had handy (I have more plus slip sticks...) My parents Adding machine, and my fully programmable calculator - this is one I found at a HS Flea a year or so back; I still have my original, but it's on the fritz; this one works perfectly. I tested at the Flea and it worked, but replaced the batteries immediately...



My parents adding machine, I can remember them balancing checkbooks and doing taxes with this when I was a little kid - you use the Mechanical pencil/Stylus and pull down to the bottom for each digit until you can the figure: then hit the bottom bar for to reset for the next figure:



Like this - I had not hit reset yet:



After I hit reset I moved the lever on the left to (-) (subtract) then I pulled for 5 again. then for the pic, reset te elver to + so you can see the total up top (the mechanize rotates slightly to change gear direction inside)



A very cool little machine! Probably nearing 70 or more years old?

This is the one I bought original new in the late 70's; I learned to program it to calculate complex etched resistors on Micro circuits on transponder substrates that were sent to space. Later I added printed resistors as well. I later used this to setup CAD design computers for the same.



It prints out what you are calculating and you can correct if you see an error.



I literally wore my original out, I was happy to find a low use replacement 40+ years later!

 

[bonneyman]

Nice!

 

[Beerhippie]

I'm still trying to get this one running:



It seems as soon as I get it fully oiled, it's dry on the other end....

 

[MattMotoWeldGarage]

I love RPN calculators. I have several original HP - the 12c, 15c plus a few other gems. Had a 10c and 11c but redundant with 15. Once you get a roll on RPN calculators the "regular" ones are not up to par.

 

[Provincial]

Back in the 1950's and 60's, our local Savings and Loan used a sophisticated calculator/printer that kept track of balances. It was all mechanical. Here is the Wikipedia entry on that machine:

"Burroughs developed a range of adding machines with different capabilities, gradually increasing in their capabilities. A revolutionary adding machine was the Sensimatic, which was able to perform many business functions semi-automatically.[citation needed] It had a moving programmable carriage to maintain ledgers. It could store 9, 18 or 27 balances during the ledger posting operations and worked with a mechanical adder named a Crossfooter."

It was a very large "adding machine" with a typewriter-type carriage that printed the deposit or withdrawal into your passbook when making the transaction.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Suddenly I have the urge to watch The Imitation Game again.

 

[nadogail]

When I went to Navy Electronics Technician class A School in 1962 they were experimenting with a new curriculum, where they introduced Slide Rules.
My studies didn’t include them.
We were told that the only practical use of a Slide Rule was to prop open Power Supply doors so we could work on the equipment.
I honestly don’t think I ever had a real use for a Slide Rule, but I was not involved in the design of circuits, my job was to make them work again.

 

[Beerhippie]

When I went to Navy Electronics Technician class A School in 1962 they were experimenting with a new curriculum, where they introduced Slide Rules.
My studies didn’t include them.
We were told that the only practical use of a Slide Rule was to prop open Power Supply doors so we could work on the equipment.
I honestly don’t think I ever had a real use for a Slide Rule, but I was not involved in the design of circuits, my job was to make them work again.

Ohm's Law?

 

[nadogail]

Ohm's Law?

Ohm, and Kirchoff both figured circuits out.

 

[Beerhippie]

Ohm, and Kirchoff both figured circuits out.

Just pointing out that Ohm's Law is something I use regularly when diagnosing electrical system problems--and it requires multiplication and division, something a slipstick does well.

 

[cowades206]

Here is an example of what may be the first type of portable (pocket?) calculator. It was a gift to me from some friends. They used to do competitive time, speed, distance rallies and they upgraded to a better version with more digits.
I don't really deserve to own such a thing, but it is pretty cool to show off to the engineers and physicists where I work.

 

[engineer2]

I still have my HP-35 from college. Still works, but needs some minor repairs (battery door latch broken, power plug wonky.)
I doubt parts are available.

 

[Beerhippie]

Here is an example of what may be the first type of portable (pocket?) calculator. It was a gift to me from some friends. They used to do competitive time, speed, distance rallies and they upgraded to a better version with more digits.
I don't really deserve to own such a thing, but it is pretty cool to show off to the engineers and physicists where I work.

That's a hell of a gift!

I was a navigator for SCA TSD rallies many years go. What a technical blast!

 

[cowades206]

That's a hell of a gift!

I was a navigator for SCA TSD rallies many years go. What a technical blast!

Yes indeed! the person who gave it to me is obviously quite generous. These things are worth more than I would pay for one, and now this one is priceless to me.

 

[Farmer J.]

Here is an example of what may be the first type of portable (pocket?) calculator. It was a gift to me from some friends. They used to do competitive time, speed, distance rallies and they upgraded to a better version with more digits.
I don't really deserve to own such a thing, but it is pretty cool to show off to the engineers and physicists where I work.

I like it, even though i've never heard of it before, don't know what it is or how it works!
I had to look it up, the wikipedia page will be amusing read on a rainy afternoon

 

[RonnieC]

Last Summer in an antique shop I ran across the Texas Instruments Decision Making Handbook that came with my TI-55 back in 1983. That made me feel old! The TI-55 was very chunky (about 1 1/8” thick at the display) . Not my pic:

Note the LED display. It cost a good amount and I remember my dad grumbling over why we couldn’t just use a slide rule!
After a couple of years it started to act up so I got the TI-55ii which was slim and had LCD display. Unfortunately the buttons were horrible and you’d get repeated numbers which was a disaster on tests when there were long complex equations. Bought a second one, same problem.
Finally ended up with a Sharp scientific calculator an EL-500 series 501? 510? It was so much smaller and the buttons were easy to depress unlike TI’s.

 

[OccupantRJ]

I can remember being a little boy and my parents having a discussion if they should buy their first calculator. I think they talked about it cause it was so expensive and mom didn’t work outside the home. When they bought it, I couldn’t touch it unless I asked. I could not use it for my homework until AFTER I got it done and done correctly. I had to show my “figuring paper” too. That way they knew I had actually done the work.

Fast forward to maybe 2010, I bought a building calculator that actually does fractions (among other things). My calculator on my phone can’t do that, unless I spend money to purchase an app. I would be lost in my shop without it.

I have Fraction Calculator Plus on my Ipad by Digitalchemy and it was free to me on the Apple unit. Have you looked lately?

 

[senlow]

I still have my old Hewlett-Packard 41CV.

 

[Beerhippie]

I still have my old Hewlett-Packard 41CV.

That's the calculator we were required to use in engineering classes back in the early '80s! I remember the little tape strips that held programs... RPN and HP Basic.... What a brick!

 

[cowades206]

Last Summer in an antique shop I ran across the Texas Instruments Decision Making Handbook that came with my TI-55 back in 1983. That made me feel old! The TI-55 was very chunky (about 1 1/8” thick at the display) . Not my pic:

Note the LED display. It cost a good amount and I remember my dad grumbling over why we couldn’t just use a slide rule!
After a couple of years it started to act up so I got the TI-55ii which was slim and had LCD display. Unfortunately the buttons were horrible and you’d get repeated numbers which was a disaster on tests when there were long complex equations. Bought a second one, same problem.
Finally ended up with a Sharp scientific calculator an EL-500 series 501? 510? It was so much smaller and the buttons were easy to depress unlike TI’s.

My experience is similar. Bought a TI-55 in college (1980 maybe) and used it until the rechargeable battery quit. Then a TI-55II in about 1982 to have something a bit smaller with much better battery life. The TI-55II buttons stopped working in about a year. I still have the TI-55 and it works if I hook it up to a power source. Actually a 9V battery works.

These days I just use a HP15C emulator on my phone....

 

[minke]

Me too. But it's a good'n!

This is a 10-inch Keuffel & Esser Log Log Decitrig Duplex Model 4081-3, S/N 867525, made of pure mahogany plated in white celluloid, with a glass indicator held together with plastic and metal screws, inside the classic sewn orange leather case. The Model 4081-3's were only made from 1938 to 1947. The patent on the metal clip on the flap loop on the case (2,000,337) is from 1935, the latest patent (2,170,144) on the rule itself is from 1939 and the 'PAT. PEND.' after that most likely refers to their next patent in sequence (2,285,722), granted June 9, 1942, leading me to believe mine is from 1940-1941.

A very handy K&E dating timeline can be found on the Slide Rule Museum site, also directly linked here.

Also good info posted on the McCoy's catalog collector's site here.

I have my old man's 4081 which I believe is pre-WWII. The way I know it is a 4081 is that the manual says so. I bought my own (at the local K&E store!) in '60 or '61 and the box it came in says "OLD 4081-3". My fathers is better than mine as his has even feeling friction to the extreme ends of motion while I could never adjust mine as well.

My dad could refine problems in his head so that every step flipped the 'rule 180° while my solutions were more haphazard.

 

[minke]

IIRC the issue with the early HP and TI are the buttons, they would wear out and one press would give you a line of 2's.

You could send them back to be fixed....man i so think so.

IIRC at some point HP somehow added some silicone to their keys.

 

[leg17]

I still have my old Hewlett-Packard 41CV.

My go-to for engineering design work. Loved it. That reverse polish ruins a person for 'normal' calculator usage.

 

[AreBeeBee]

My go-to for engineering design work. Loved it. That reverse polish ruins a person for 'normal' calculator usage.

I learned RPN first on Wang calculators with Nixie tube displays back in the 1960s. After those I found that RPN on the HP-35 — bought new in 1974 and still working — ruined me for ordinary 4-bangers and subsequent models with that entry mode. And it still causes me to stumble with them.

 

[humber2]

My quick test to detect less than desirable calculators is….

Enter 8, take square root, square that result.

If the answer is 7.98 move on to a better option.

YMMV

 

[Outlawmws]

Excel passes the test.

So did my EL5100

 

[Farmer J.]

Mechanical or electronic calculators had been invented
but weren't allowed whilst I was in school, this was what we used for calculations. Maybe I should have put it in the 'books' thread, but here it is anyway.. Can't even remember how to use it now

 

[Beerhippie]

Ah, log tables! They work like the multiply/divide scales of a slip stick. To multiply two numbers, find their logs and add those together. Find the number that corresponds to the resulting log and you're done! To divide, subtract.

Of course, there are many other uses for various logs.

Come to think of it, I've helped build houses using almost nothing but logs.

 

[Farmer J.]

Of course, there are many other uses for various logs.

I remember using the other tables mostly in geometry, but mostly can't remember what for!
I did use them to calculate the tonnage of grain within a conical heap.